Is the Superhero Movie Genre as Invulnerable as Its Iconic Characters?

Man of Steel may have yielded the top spot at this weekend’s U.S. box office to Monsters University, but across the world, Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot remains No. 1 in people’s hearts. The movie has made north of $400 million internationally despite what could charitably be described as “poor critical reception” — and shows little sign of stopping.

It’s also very much not alone. Even though reviews of the film ranged from the excited to the downright damning, its reception with audiences remained decidedly strong. It set a new opening weekend record for June box office and even though the movie’s aggregate rating by critics on Rotten Tomatoes was a decidedly meh 56 percent, the audience rating was “fresh” at 82 percent and the audience metric of Cinemascore gave it an A-. Many a summer superhero tentpole has followed a similar trajectory. All of which underscores one simple, yet still surprising, truth about flicks based on superhero comics: Moviegoers can’t seem to get enough of them.

It also, however, begs the uncomfortable followup question: Will that last or will the appeal of capes and special powers and do-goodery wear off as audiences move on to other thrills?

There were many — myself amongst them — who believed that the staggering success of last year’s Avengers marked the pinnacle for the genre, and that audiences would drift away from superhero-centric movies after the big climax of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And then Iron Man 3 broke box office records all around the world. Man of Steel’s success may be an even stronger indicator of the longevity of superhero movies as a genre, however. At this point, we cynically expect Marvel movies to do well, because — The Incredible Hulk aside — all Marvel movies do well. What Man of Steel does is prove that audiences can get excited about a big superhero movie that isn’t produced by Marvel (or starring Batman).

That’s a good thing, too, considering just last week Sony announced its timeline for two more Spider-Man movies beyond next year’s sequel to Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, effectively plotting new Spidey flicks for this fall’s incoming high school freshmen to catch in theaters until after their graduations. Calling Spider-Man the company’s “most important, most successful, and most beloved franchise,” Sony Pictures’ marketing and distribution chair Jeff Blake revealed that the studio plans to release the third and fourth installments of the rebooted series in June 2016 and May 2018, respectively.

A week earlier, Disney announced two mystery movies by Marvel Studios with 2016 and 2017 release dates respectively, adding to a slate that already has two superhero movies every year between now and then. Warner Bros., meanwhile, is rumored to be fast-tracking a Man of Steel sequel that would see it arrive in theaters as early as next year, with the long-stalled Justice League movie arriving a year later, a schedule which seems not only faster than a speeding bullet in terms of movie production, but also more than a little ambitious (or insane).

Add to that Fox’s X-Men franchise — The Wolverine is coming next month, X-Men: Days of Future Past next year — and other, lesser-known, superhero properties in various stages of development or production including Kick-Ass 2 this August and a Fantastic Four flick in 2015, and it’s increasingly clear that if the success of the superhero genre is just a bubble in the wider summer blockbuster movie story, it’s a bubble that’s nowhere near bursting — at least on the supply side.

Of course, most of the big superhero successes have come from iconic characters like Iron Man and Superman, who are already well-known to mainstream audiences. It will be more interesting to see in coming years is how moviegoers react to films whose superheroes who lack the brand awareness of the Avengers or X-Men. Even with the Marvel logo attached, next year’s Guardians of the Galaxy — a collection of space-faring characters who have only been in print intermittently since the concept’s creation decades ago, featuring a talking raccoon and giant living tree, amongst other characters — may prove to be too much of an abstract concept in much the same way that Warner/DC’s Green Lantern did in 2011.

Given the amount of lead time required in making these special-effects heavy movies — and the amount of lead we’re seeing in their announcements — it’s possible that audiences could tire of superhero movies before Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man makes his fourth appearance. But if they do, the question may not just be whether the genre is oversaturated, but whether the box office success of the genre can persist beyond the nostalgia and familiarity of its most iconic heroes.